One special session to fix them all

Minnesota has been no stranger to special sessions in recent years. Budget deadlocks and government shutdowns are the most common cause for calling a special session, but sometimes emergencies make one necessary.

Governors are often reluctant to call a special session unless there is agreement in advance on the agenda. Otherwise, a special session could take up just about anything.

Gov. Mark Dayton wants to call a special session in September to consider disaster relief for Minnesota counties affected by severe storms in June, and just that. But Republicans also want a chance to repeal some onerous tax changes approved in haste last year, like the warehousing tax that most everyone agrees is a bad, anti-business idea.

On Thursday, DFL leaders proposed a session to consider disaster relief and a repeal of the new sales tax on farm equipment repair, and nothing more.

The farm equipment repair tax went into effect on July 1, but the warehousing tax won’t take effect until next April, so the governor would just as soon wait until the next session to undo that new tax.

We agree with Republicans. Why wait? If the new farm equipment repair tax and the warehouse tax, and the new tax on the purchase of telecommunications equipment by telecommunications providers are bad ideas, why not get them out of there and be done with it? Let Minnesota businesses, which are exploring their options in other low-tax states know that Minnesota is not going to be reaching deeper into their pockets.

As Republicans point out, if we can have special sessions to deal with natural disasters, why not one to deal with man-made disasters?